


A Perfect Disaster

by allmylovesatonce



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-15 04:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4592844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allmylovesatonce/pseuds/allmylovesatonce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mindy is all set to see the man she loves and ask him to marry her. What she doesn't foresee is getting stranded and having to rely on a man she doesn't know to get back to her boyfriend. AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Turbulent Times

There comes a defining point in each person’s life where they look back and realize that was where they became who they are today. Mindy Lahiri was sure that her moment was fast approaching. She was a happy woman. She was happily dating the man of her dreams and they were perfect together. She was good at her job and she had a good group of friends. Some people might call her life perfect. She was often one of them.

But sometimes, she thought a bit too long about her life. It wasn’t something that was a common occurrence, but lately it had been happening more often. To the outside eye, there wasn’t a thing she should change about her life. Deep in the dark corners of her mind though, she knew what she would change.

It had all started the night when she thought she was going to get engaged. She may have told a few too many people that he was going to pop the question. And then at dinner, Cliff pulled out a jewelry box. Mindy hoped that her fake surprised face was adequate. He placed the box in front of her and told her it was about time it happened. She could feel her hands shaking as she gently opened the box. Instead of some large glimmering diamond ring, she found a pair of diamond earrings. To be fair, they were rather large and did in fact glimmer, but it didn’t make the same statement. She smiled, trying to be convincing, but inside was utter turmoil. Luckily, Cliff got a work emergency and had to run out on dinner.

She spent the rest of the night staring at the earrings, wondering why her boyfriend wouldn’t propose to her. She swore she’d dropped enough hints. Not two weeks before, they’d applied for these really ritzy apartments in Los Angeles. They were occupied by pretentious and uppity people that she hated in normal life, but loved as her neighbors. To even have their application acknowledged had been a huge deal. She and Cliff were in a great place. She just wanted them to be at least one jump further from where they currently were.  They’d been together for three years already. They were ready for the next step.

As she laid in bed that night, she remembered something her mother used to say to her. “Create your own destiny.” As a child it seemed silly. Occasionally, she would try to find places to apply it, but ultimately things just worked in her favor. Up until this very point in her life, she’d never really dwelled on those words. But maybe it was time she did create her own destiny. If Cliff wouldn’t propose to her, maybe she should just propose to him.

She scurried around her apartment, making plans to go through with this. Cliff was leaving in the morning for a conference in New York City. Where was a better place to make a romantic gesture than in New York City? All her favorite movies told her that it was the best place ever. She started throwing clothes in a suitcase, thinking of everything she could need for such a spontaneous and romantic moment. Cliff should be pretty impressed since they didn’t do that many spontaneous things.

The next morning Mindy got on a plane to head to her new destiny. After a short stop in Chicago, she was onto the last leg of her trip. She sat next to a kind old man on the plane. He asked her what she was going to be doing in New York City. She sat up straighter in her seat and looked him in the eye to proudly tell him that she was going to propose to her boyfriend. Of course, she was a fairly nervous flier and so once she started talking she couldn’t stop. She branched into how it was the 21st century and women could do anything men could do. Basically her explanation of flying to New York turned into a feminist rant. The old man nodded his head lightly and muttered something about Cliff being one lucky guy. She sensed he was being sarcastic.

Not long into their flight, they hit a big patch of turbulence. The captain came over the speaker to reassure them that it was just some turbulence. It persisted though and the plane was shaking violently. With every shake and dip, Mindy felt closer to death. No one could convince her that it was not a big deal. No one even knew that she was going to New York City. She’d just be missing when her plane went down over some random Midwest state. The captain came back over the speaker to explain that the storm they were approaching was worse than everyone had intended and they were going to have to make an emergency landing.

Before she knew it, they were grounded and the passengers were being ushered off the plane and into the tiniest airport she’d ever seen in her life. The flight attendants were all too happy to inform them that there were no other flights until the next day. She hesitantly asked if there were any cabs. One shy man by the one door of the airport raised his hand, volunteering his service.

Mindy knew it would be a ridiculous amount to pay for a cab ride from Ohio to New York, but she was getting desperate. She just wanted to see Cliff and she just wanted to be in a big city where she was comfortable. She was not made for the small town life. The cabbie worked out a deal with her so she didn’t end up paying an arm and a leg to get to New York. Apparently the man had always wanted an excuse to go there.

The storm was certainly a heavy one. It was understandable why the plane landed. The roads even looked bad. Mindy was happy she wasn’t the one who had to drive. It had only been about a half an hour when Mindy noticed the taxi slowing down.  He stopped at a street corner and turned around to face her.

“Listen, Miss, I know I promised you New York but this storm is too bad to drive through. I’m afraid I’m gonna have to leave you here. I need to get home and we have no business being out in this. There’s a little inn just up the road. They should be able to take you in. Since I bailed on you, this ride will be on me. So sorry.”

Mindy sat there with her mouth hanging open for way too long. Finally she started to feel like an idiot and she got out of the car, grabbing her things, and heading off in the direction of the little inn. She was completely drenched by the time she reached the place. It looked quaint though it practically screamed “small town.” She looked up and read the sign. The inn was called The Getaway.  She threw the door open and ran inside. There was a small desk to one side and a bar off to the other. There were a few older men crowded around the bar, chatting with the man behind it.

Strolling up to them, Mindy cleared her throat asking, “Do any of you know how I would be able to get to New York if all planes are grounded and the cab drivers are too weak to drive through a storm?” They all looked at her like she was crazy. She was sure she was a sight to behold, soaked to the bone in her designer clothes, rolling a suitcase behind her.

The man behind the bar looked at her shrewdly. “New York, huh? You do realize that this is Ohio, right? And that New York is full of terrible people?”

“Yes, I know that I’m in Ohio, but I have to get there before tomorrow.”

“With this storm getting there by tomorrow would be quite the stretch. Even if you had someone to take you,” he answered with a smirk.

One of the older men next to her smacked his arm, laughing as he said, “Oh come on man, you could take her. It’s been so long since you’ve been to New York.”

Mindy looked at the old man questioningly before looking back at the other man. The bartender had a blank expression on his face as he gauged his customer. He shook his head lightly.

“Wait, _could_ you take me?” Mindy asked.

“I _could_ take you…” he answered.

“Oh great!” Mindy squealed.

“Just because I could take you doesn’t mean I will, though.”

Mindy threw her purse down on the bar. “Are you serious? Why would you phrase it like that? Come on!” She could see her chances dwindling. Maybe there would be another place nearby where she could con some sweet Midwesterner to take her to New York. After all, she is a pretty woman from out west. She didn’t want to go back out in the rain though. She’d keep trying her luck here.

“Listen, I really need to be in New York City. Like _really_ need to. Could you find it somewhere in your heart to help out a perfect stranger who is at the mercy of others in a town she doesn’t know and a state she’s never even been to before and was frankly unaware existed. Please. I’m trying to appeal to your better nature here.” Mindy was trying to lay it on as thickly as possible, hoping it would work.

He stared at her and narrowed his eyes as he appraised her. He shook his head and rolled his eyes before he sighed. “Fine. I will take you to New York. We will leave in the morning.”

“Whoa, whoa! The morning? I just told you I need to be there tomorrow.”

“Tough luck. I have a business to run. It’s tomorrow or it’s never.”

Mindy sighed dramatically. “Fine.” She sat down at the bar next to the other men and stretched out her hand. “Thank you. I’m Mindy, by the way.”

He reached out and shook her hand. “I’m Danny.” 


	2. A Room at the Inn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kinda setting up the dynamics between the two of them!   
> I hope you like it!  
> I'm always a fan of feedback!

“So this will be your room. I’ll be waiting downstairs at 7:00 tomorrow to head out. Okay?” Danny said as he walked Mindy to her room.

“Whoa. Not okay. First, 7:00 is so early and – ”

“I thought you needed to be there tomorrow. Didn’t you get mad at me for not taking you tonight?”

“Fair point. Fine. 7:00 sounds great. Next, I noticed you’re both an inn and a bar. Do you happen to have any food? I didn’t see a McDonalds or anything nearby and I’m kind of hungry.”

Danny chucked. “Wow. You’re kind of high maintenance aren’t you?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean it’s not enough I’m giving you a place to stay and a ride crossing several states?”

“First, I’m paying to stay here. It’s not like I’m demanding to stay here for free. Second, I may not be excellent at geography but I’m fairly certain it’s not _several_ states. It’s like two.”

“It’s more than two.”

Mindy pulled out her phone to look. “I mean I’m pretty sure it’s not…”

Danny grabbed her phone away from her. “Whatever. It’s going to feel like several states.”

Mindy looked at Danny and down to her phone and back at him. She looked shocked. He suddenly flushed and handed her phone back to her. “Sorry,” he muttered quietly. They stood there silently for a minute. Mindy was surveying the small room and Danny was feeling uncomfortable for acting so weirdly. Mindy rolled her suitcase in and set it on the bed when her stomach growled loudly. She turned around slowly and looked at Danny guiltily.

He sighed heavily. “Fine. I could make you a sandwich or something. Nothing fancy.”

Mindy smiled at him. “Sounds great. I’d eat about anything at this point.”

Danny nodded and dropped her key on the table by the door and left, closing the door behind him.

With Danny gone, Mindy took to unpacking. She didn’t need to get out much for one night but she did need to change from her sopping wet clothes into dry ones. She got distracted trying to find the right clothes to change into. She didn’t want to change into her pajamas just yet but she didn’t have much else to lounge around in.

She was standing there in her bra and panties when she heard a quick knock and the door started to open. Panicking, she ran and threw her body against the door, effectively slamming one of Danny’s arms in the door and causing him to drop her food on the floor.

“Son of a bitch!” Danny yelled. Mindy hid her body behind the curtains as Danny eased himself into the room. “What the hell was that?”

“I’m sorry but you didn’t even wait for an answer. You just let yourself in! I was practically naked. Sorry that I freaked out about a strange man entering my room!”

Danny sat down on her bed and started massaging his arm. Mindy felt awkward still draped in the curtains. “How’s your arm?”

“It’s fine.”

“Oh? Is that why you’re sitting there rubbing it like a two year old with a boo-boo?”

“Okay let’s not forget that my arm hurts because you slammed the door against it by running to the door and hurling yourself at it.”

“I’m sorry. Close your eyes.”

“Excuse me?”

“Close your eyes. I’m gonna come out from behind the curtains and you seeing me in this state of undress kinda negates the point of me slamming my body against the door.”

“Okay,” Danny replied glumly, closing his eyes.

Mindy checked to make sure he really did close his eyes and she ran over to her suitcase, digging for her robe she knew she brought. She was looking away and didn’t notice Danny giving into his curiosity and opening his eyes however briefly to see what she was hiding. She was turning back toward him and he slammed his eyes shut again. Suddenly he felt her hands on his arm. He jumped slightly.

“Sorry. You can open your eyes.”

He opened his eyes to see her gently prodding at his arm to test where it hurt. She looked deep in thought.

“Does that hurt?”

“Yes.”

She pursed her lips and gently rubbed his arm methodically. Suddenly she smacked his arm.

“Ow!”

She patted him on the shoulder. “I think you’ll live.”

“What the…” Danny muttered under his breath.

Mindy moved over toward the door to salvage the sandwich that had fallen on the floor. She was starting to restack it when Danny felt he needed to step in.

“Don’t eat that.”

“Eh, it’s fine.”

“Mindy, don’t eat it. I can make you another one just as fast. Well probably not _just_ as fast given my new impediment…” Mindy scoffed at him. Danny continued. “But I’ll make you another one. Though I’m gonna make you pay for this one. Revenge for my arm.”

“You weren’t gonna make me pay for this?” Mindy asked, rather touched.

“Doesn’t really matter because you are now,” Danny replied as he walked out of the room and back downstairs. Mindy started to follow him but figured she should probably put on actual clothes before she went downstairs where other customers were.

As Mindy settled into bed, she thought about how unlikely it had been for her to have a pleasant evening. And yet she had. She wished Cliff were here. He’s always talking about how nice it is to meet people who don’t live the crazy LA lifestyle. He would have liked these people who basically didn’t have anywhere to be. Danny was a bit of a crab. She wasn’t sure how their several hour-long trip was going to be, but nonetheless, she was grateful for his help. She promised herself she was going to keep remembering that.

Seven came way too early the next morning. But she was creating her own destiny. Maybe she could get up a little early in order to accomplish what she set out to do. If she didn’t propose to Cliff, all her troubles were basically pointless.

She loaded her bags into the back of Danny’s car and climbed in the passenger seat. She kept debating whether it would be rude to fall asleep. Maybe more than rude it would be dangerous. She didn’t really know this Danny fellow. He could have agreed to take her to New York so he could kill her somewhere along the way. She looked back over to the door and saw him laughing with two of the older men from the night before. She shook her head to herself. He wasn’t going to kill her. He was a good guy. Though if he kept being grumpy and judgmental, then she might end up changing her stance on the matter.

Danny got in the car, setting his cup of coffee down in one of the cup holders. Mindy looked at the coffee and then at him and back at the coffee. He looked over as he started the car and noticed her confusion.

“Something wrong? Did you realize you’d rather die than go to New York?”

“Not at all. I just was curious if there would be a coffee available for me?”

“You didn’t ask for any…”

“I didn’t realize it was an option!”

“Well the car has started and I’m about to pull it out of park and into drive. I’d say the time for coffee requests is passed.”

“Seriously?!” Mindy screeched.

Danny just shrugged in reply.

“Well is there a Starbucks in town?”

Danny looked at her skeptically. “Does it look like there’s a Starbucks in town?”

Mindy groaned and shot Danny a dirty look. “Well could you at least share your coffee with me?”

“Do you like it black?”

Mindy wrinkled up her nose. “I…could…”

“Too bad. I don’t share my drinks with strangers,” Danny answered as he started to pull out onto the road. Mindy held in the urge to scream. He was helping her out of a jam. She just had to keep remembering that.

They’d been driving in amicable silence for a while when Mindy started thinking of things to get a conversation going. She’d needed some time to cool off from the damn coffee thing. She was just about to start talking when whatever horrible song he was listening to hit some shrill note.

“My God. What is this crap?”

“Crap?”

“Yes. It is so shrill. I can’t take it.”

“Well sorry, sugar. In my car, the driver picks the music,” Danny said with a self-satisfied grin. Mindy rolled her eyes at him. She reached over for the dial when he swatted her hand away. She reached around his hand with her other hand to hit the button. She was close when he started swatting both of them. They were engaged in a battle for the radio when Mindy looked up and noticed a big rock lying in the road.

“Danny, look out!”

Danny swerved to miss it but hit it straight on. They kept driving. They didn’t make it three more miles before Danny started to sense something was wrong. He pulled off to the side of the road and noticed the leak of his soon to be flat tire.

Mindy jumped out of the car and came around to survey the damage with Danny.

“Looks like you’ve got a flat.”

“You don’t say?”

“Okay. I think we can do without your theatrics. Why don’t we just change the tire? It’s not hard.”

“It is when you don’t have a spare.”

“You don’t have a spare?!” Mindy yelled at him.

“It’s a long story, but no.”

“So where is the nearest something?” Mindy asked, concerned about just how stranded they were.

“Well according to the last sign we saw, the nearest town is ten to fifteen miles away.”

“So what you’re saying is that there’s no one around to hear you scream?”

Danny looked perplexed. “I guess. Why?”

Mindy glared at him. “Because I’m going to kill you.”


	3. My Feet Hurt Too

It was the third time she’d huffed in the stretch of about a minute. Danny was doing his best to not make any comments, for fear of making the situation even worse. There was a strong chance though, that if she huffed one more time, he was going to lose it. She huffed again. And he lost it.

“My God. If you knew we were going to be walking ten miles, why didn’t you change shoes? Those heels are ridiculous!” Danny basically yelled at her.

Mindy stopped in her tracks and glared at him. “For your information, Daniel, I only brought heels. I was coming for a fun stay in New York City. I didn’t bring clothes to slum in.”

“Well next time you go on a cross country trip, maybe you should remember this and bring a pair of sensible shoes just in case.”

“What, just in case the idiot who was driving ran straight over a boulder and doesn’t have a freaking spare tire for inexplicable reasons so we have to walk fifteen miles on foot?”

Danny stopped and scoffed at her. “I had my reasons; I just didn’t tell you what they were.”

“What is the big deal? What did you sell your spare tire so you’d have money for drugs?” Mindy yelled exasperatedly as she started walking again.

Danny looked at her stunned by her reasoning. “No. Why would it be drugs?”

She looked back at him. “It’s your whole thing. How else would you handle living in _Ohio_? I mean an innkeeper in the middle of nowhere? You’d definitely need drugs.”

Danny shook his head and picked up his stride. “Maybe I like the peace and quiet. It’s soothing.” She looked over to note his serious face before he continued. “You know, until some nut job comes in demanding rides places like she’s the queen and tries to break my arm when all I’m doing is trying to give her food.”

Mindy scoffed again at him. “Well maybe if you weren’t a pervert who wanted to spy on me while I was practically naked.”

“Oh please,” Danny argued, starting to lose the fight in him.

Mindy looked over at him and noticed his rather defeated expression. She decided if they were stuck in a tricky situation together, she might as well try and find out more about her companion.

“I guess Ohio wouldn’t be that bad if you grew up here. I could maybe see the scenic charm if I wasn’t so tied to big city life.”

Danny took her comment for what it was: an olive branch. He looked around to notice the farmland to their sides.

“It _is_ beautiful at times. I didn’t actually grow up here though.”

“Where are you from?”

Danny paused and chuckled a bit before answering. “I actually grew up in New York.”

Mindy whirled around to gape at him. “What? But you hate New York? You’re from there?”

“Yep. Staten Island, born and raised,” Danny replied with a nostalgic grin on his face.

“So what made you leave? Why do you hate it so much?”

“That is yet another long complicated story from my past. And I don’t think I know you well enough to confide in you…”

Mindy laughed. “What dirt do I have to spill to unlock your tragic backstory?”

Danny looked at her like she was insane. He could see she really wanted to know. He took a deep breath and looked ahead at the road as he kept walking. He was trying to gauge how much he should actually divulge to her. She was basically a stranger and he wasn’t usually one to delve into his feelings.

“The inn is my mom’s. I moved out here when she needed me.”

Mindy seemed to contemplate what he said. “That’s nice of you. You didn’t really say anything too personal there though. Come on, I want the juicy stuff!” He looked at her and shook his head. “Fine. How about this? What did you do in your old life? Were you the manager of a Mariott?”

Danny actually chuckled, which surprised Mindy. Without looking at her he answered, “No. I was a doctor.”

“Wait, what?!”

“What is it _that_ hard to believe?”

“No. It’s just that I am also a doctor. And as much as I love my mother, I can’t see me giving up what I love for anything.”

Danny just shrugged. “Well, given the right circumstances, maybe you would.”

There was a heavy silence between them. Mindy knew there was more to the story. Danny was waiting for her to press for more information. He was actually shocked when she just let things be.

“So what about you?” he asked. “What’s taking you to New York City? Have you ever been there before?”

“Yeah I have. I got my medical degree from Columbia. But after I graduated I decided to move out west.”

“Ahh. And you’re going back because…?”

“I’m going because my boyfriend is there on a business conference and I am going to propose to him,” Mindy said, lacking the confidence she’d had every time she’d told someone else.

Danny stopped and looked at her with a completely shocked look on his face. “I couldn’t have heard you correctly. You’re what now?”

“You heard me. I’m going to propose to my boyfriend. All my favorite movies say that New York is the place where romantic things happen, so I’m going to embrace that.”

Danny barked out a loud laugh and Mindy recoiled in offense. “Look I realize it’s unconventional, but…” she started, trailing off, unsure of how to defend herself without sounding like a desperate spinster.

“I wasn’t laughing at you. I was laughing at the idea that New York is this romantic place. It’s just not.”

“It can be.”

Danny looked over at her asking, “In your time that you lived there, did it prove to be this all romantic place?”

Mindy hesitated, not wanting to prove his point, but remembering the lack of romance.

Danny nodded his head assuredly. “Exactly.”

“Whatever. It’s just what I’m doing.”

“Good for you.” He paused, debating if he was within his rights to ask the question really weighing on his mind. “Can I ask you a question?”

Mindy looked at him with a skeptical look. “Fine.”

“Why are _you_ proposing?”

“Because it’s the 21st century and women can do anything men can do. If you’d have had a spare tire back there, I could have changed it. See? Equals.”

Danny squinted at her. There was something under the surface she was holding back. It intrigued him, but since he was doing the same thing, he let it go.

After hours and much more moaning and groaning from Mindy about her feet, they finally reached a diner on the outskirts of a little town. Mindy was happy to finally have a place to sit down and actually have the opportunity to eat. Danny went over to a long eating bar by the window to the kitchen and asked about a phone. The service had not been great in the middle of nowhere, so they still hadn’t called a tow truck. When pointed in the right direction, Danny went to wait in line to use the phone.

Mindy walked by him. “I’m gonna use the bathroom. If you get done here first, order me something big. I’m starving.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Yes ma’am.”

She smiled sarcastically back at him before going to wait in the line for the women’s room. The line dwindled down and she was the only person left waiting to get in the one person bathroom. Who even had those anymore at restaurants? Or anywhere for that matter! Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone approach. She just assumed it was another person waiting in line. When the girl ahead of her cleared out, Mindy started toward the bathroom. She was closing the door when the man behind her shoved his way into the bathroom.

“Um, excuse me, but this is a one person bathroom. And the men’s is next door,” Mindy said, backing further into the bathroom and away from the rough looking guy. He kept coming closer to her. Suddenly he was right up on her and she was out of room to back up.

“You’re mighty pretty,” he said around multiple gaps in his teeth. He looked like he hadn’t showered in days and was just all around rough. He reached out to touch her and she pushed him away. He grabbed her wrists and stepped even closer into her space.

She fought to try and get away from him. “Get off me!” She screamed as loudly as she could, hoping someone would hear in the rather packed diner.

He was still fighting to get as close as possible to her. “Come on, sugar, can’t we work somethin’ out?”

“No!” She screamed, still hoping someone would hear.

“Now aren’t women supposed to be submissive?” he said leaning into her. Mindy was so busy trying to fight him off she didn’t hear the door open or sense the presence of another person in the room.

“I believe the lady said ‘No.’,” Danny yelled as he grabbed the guy by the back of his coat and ripped him off of Mindy. She doubled over to try and catch her breath as she saw the guy turn on Danny.

Danny was quick though. He met him with a swift punch to the face. The guy was throwing weak punches at Danny that weren’t even connecting. “Come on, you can’t just let me have a little fun?” he said, as Danny was blocking his offenses. Mindy noticed a furious glint in Danny’s eyes that almost scared her. Danny grabbed the guy by the coat and rammed his head against the porcelain sink, effectively knocking the guy unconscious.

“I don’t think so,” Danny said, panting as he stood over the man lying on the floor.  Mindy looked at Danny like she was scared of him, but also like he was the best thing she’d ever seen. He started to approach her hesitantly. He reached out to gently grab her arm. “Are you okay?” He asked, looking at her intently.

She just nodded silently. Suddenly the door to the bathroom burst open and the owner of the diner looked at the scene. He looked at Danny and Mindy standing next to the unconscious body. He shook his head furiously.

“Both of you out, now!” They both started to protest before he continued. “Get out now before I call the police.”

They quickly ran out of the diner and Danny took the lead setting back out on the road. Mindy grabbed his arm to turn him back around. He looked at her curiously. She looked up at him for a second before she wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you.”

He patted her back quickly. “It was noth–”

Mindy pulled back and laid a hand on his arm. “Don’t say it was nothing. Because it was something. Just accept my thanks.”

Danny nodded to her and patted her arm. “You’re welcome.”

They both removed their hands and turned to face the road again.   
“So where to now?” Mindy asked, hoping he’d have a good answer.

“I think there’s a train station in town. We could try to catch a train.”

“How far is town?” Mindy asked, looking at Danny hesitantly.

He grimaced a little. “Probably further than you’d like.”

They set off on foot again, Mindy finally succumbing and taking off her shoes. She looked over at Danny as he stared on ahead. This morning when they bickered over everything, she could never have pictured him basically saving her life. He was certainly a mystery, but she was glad she had him with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're liking it so far. I have a lot more planned! Hopefully you'll stay along for the rest.   
> Thanks for reading!!


	4. Pick Up the Pace

Mindy felt tears rolling down her cheeks. They’d walked so far today. Her feet felt like they were going to fall off. She’d long since taken off her shoes, but it didn’t stop the aching. She silently let the tears flow as each step felt like a nail gun to the foot. She didn’t want to make a big deal about it though. It wasn’t like there was anything she or Danny could do about how far they had to walk. It was just the situation they were in. So she kept her pain to herself. Danny’d already done enough for her today.

Danny noticed that Mindy had been silent for a long time. At first he’d enjoyed it but then it started to worry him. In most of the time he’d known her (which granted, started yesterday) she’d been talking. She was a couple of paces behind him. He could hear her trudging along, but she didn’t speak at all. He turned slightly to look at her. Upon first glance she seemed fine. As he was turning back, he noticed her tears and immediately did a double take.

He stopped and grabbed her arms, effectively stopping her as well. She had been looking down but popped her head to pout at him. He wanted nothing more than to wipe away her tears and wrap her in his arms. He didn’t really know where the urge came from. He’d only known her for about twenty four hours. He’d felt incredibly protective of her ever since he saw that man follow her into the bathroom.

Ducking down to look her directly in the eyes he asked, “Are you alright?” Mindy smiled weakly and nodded. Danny quickly ran his hands up and down her arms. “Are you sure? You can tell me if something’s wrong.”

Mindy reached up and patted his shoulder. “Thanks, Danny. My feet just really hurt.”

Danny looked at her skeptically. “So this is only to do with your feet?” She nodded. “It has nothing to do with what happened back there?” he asked cautiously.

“No. I promise. If anything, I’m most upset about not getting to eat. I’m starving.” Danny wasn’t quite buying it, but he didn’t want to fight her on it. If she wanted to really tell him what was wrong, she would.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder before rethinking it and removing his arm. He placed his hand lightly on her back saying, “We should be getting close.”

Mindy didn’t miss the gentleness with which Danny had been regarding her. She knew he was a nice guy, but he seemed like he genuinely cared. And that was rather unexpected in someone she’d known for a day.

After a few more minutes of walking, Mindy spotted the station ahead. It was still a distance off but the end was in sight. She felt giddy just looking at it. “Danny, look!” Mindy cheered excitedly. Just as Danny was taking in the beautiful sight of the station, they heard it. It was still off in the distance, but the horn of the train was unmistakable.

“Oh my God, no!” Mindy yelled dramatically.

Danny picked up his pace. “Come on. We’re close. If we run we could make it,” he said trying to encourage her.

Mindy shook her head hopelessly. “No, Danny. My feet hurt too much. Just go on without me. Go catch the train. Find Cliff and propose to him for me. I’ll just be here slowly dying from pain and physical exertion.”

Danny scoffed at her. He stopped right in front of her and bent down. Mindy recoiled. “What the hell are you doing?”

Danny pointed at his back as he was still squatted in front of her. “Just climb on.”

Mindy laughed. “Danny, I’m not going to let you give me a piggy back ride. That will take even longer.”

“Mindy, we are wasting precious time. Do you want to get to New York or not?”

Mindy stood there for a second debating. Making up her mind and praying she wasn’t killing him, Mindy jumped on Danny’s back. He suddenly bounced her to hike her further up his back and then he took off running. She leaned against him. This was the most bizarre thing she’d ever done. Particularly with a stranger. Danny was moving surprisingly quickly for a man carrying someone else on his back. Mindy clung to him, her arms around his neck.

As she stayed leaned into him, his scent was filling her nose. He smelled pretty damn good for a man who’d walked several miles and gotten in a fist fight all in the last few hours.  She could feel his strong arms holding her up and keeping her close to him. For a second she got caught up thinking about other situations where they could be this close, where she could feel his arms around her. For a second, with her body flush against his, she forgot why they were rushing to catch the train. Then she remembered. She was about to start the rest of her life with another man.

They were basically at the train station when Mindy heard Danny groaning in frustration. She picked her head up off his shoulder and looked up to see the train departing the station. He gently set her back down and she looked sadly at the quickly disappearing train. Danny sighed regretfully.

“I’m sorry, Mindy.”

Mindy turned her head quickly to look at him. “Sorry? Danny you just carried me for like two miles. Why are you sorry?”

Danny laughed at her. “It was not two miles.”

“Whatever. Just don’t be sorry. Time just wasn’t on our side. It wasn’t anything you did.” He looked at her, trying to see if she really meant what she was saying. He nodded slowly and turned to go into the train station.

Mindy plopped herself down on the first bench she saw while Danny went off in search of a bathroom. Mindy looked up and realized she’d sat down in front of the vacant ticket booth. She looked around to see where the person might be. She saw no one anywhere close to her and she did not have the energy to go searching for them.

Danny came back and sat down next to her. He held out an open bag of chips for her. She looked down at the bag and then back at Danny to see what he meant by the gesture. If he’d had chips on him the whole time, she might just have to kill him.

“Where did you get those?”

Danny snagged a chip out of the bag and popped it in his mouth. “I found them.”

“Eww in the bathroom? Danny!”

Danny laughed. “No you idiot. I found a vending machine.”

“Ohh,” Mindy replied, relieved to be presented with food. She reached in and grabbed a handful.

“Geez. Do you know how to share?” Danny accused. Mindy rolled her eyes at him. The fight had left her.

They were sitting there snacking on chips when a man walked up to them. “Is there anything I can help you with?” he asked kindly.

Mindy jumped up quickly. “Yes. We need two tickets for your next train.”

The guy looked at her with a confused look. “Sorry, Honey, but that was the last train out.”

Danny jumped up beside her. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah. Not many trains come through here. The next train out is tomorrow at nine.”

Mindy looked at Danny exasperatedly. She was about ready to scream. He could sense it and reached out to put a calming hand on her shoulder. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

“Okay, well if the next train is not till tomorrow then we’re gonna need a place to stay. You know of any place?” Danny asked politely.

The man smiled, saying, “I know a great place where you can stay!”

The man sent them in the direction of his friend’s Bed and Breakfast. It was only a few streets over, luckily. They reached the place and stopped to appraise it. It was cute, that was for sure. It was an old white house with royal blue shutters. There was a white picket fence out front with a sign for the place. The lawn was green and covered in beautiful flowers. It looked like something you’d find only in the fifties or the Deep South. Danny and Mindy looked at each other nervously before Danny opened the gate and motioned for her to go first.

Mindy opened the door and could hear a bell ring, alerting the owner to new guests. A homely looking woman trotted behind the desk, greeting them happily.

“Why hello there! What can I do for you?”

Mindy smiled back at her and walked over to the desk. “Would you have room for us? We’re in desperate need of a place to stay.”

The lady smiled and opened her book to check. “We’re doing some renovation, so some of our rooms aren’t exactly habitable right now. But we still have a few in use. There’s another couple that just checked in.”

Mindy looked at Danny nervously. She really didn’t want to have to go find another place to stay.

“Aha. We actually have a room. You’re in luck!”

Danny walked up next to Mindy, smiling at the cheerfulness of the woman. He was pretty happy at the prospect of getting to sit down.

“Actually, you’re really in luck. We only have one room left and I just turned away a couple because they wanted to stay here but they weren’t married. I told them I was sorry but that I had morals.” Mindy felt her stomach clench as the lady continued. “That won’t be a problem for you will it?”

Time to think on her toes. “No,” Mindy said, assuredly, as she linked her arm through Danny’s. “Not at all.”

Danny looked down quickly at Mindy’s arm around his. He knew he had to play along but he was struggling to catch up with her. Mindy smiled up at him and gave him big eyes.

The lady looked at them skeptically. “So you’re married then?”

Mindy looked back from Danny and smiled widely. “Yes.”

The lady looked over at Danny. He smiled at her, hoping it was convincing. He leaned his head toward Mindy’s and she mimicked the motion. He dropped her arm and placed his around her back, with his hand on her hip. He took a deep breath saying, “Yep. We are married.”


	5. Dinner and Something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit longer than usual! I hope you enjoy! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Danny and Mindy stood there nervously as the lady went about checking them in. Danny was afraid to let go of Mindy, should she think they weren’t an actual married couple. Mindy could feel Danny’s hand hot on her hip. It was making her feel a bit warm herself. She tried not to think about it too much.

“So what is the name for your reservation?”

“Castellano.”

“Lahiri.”

They both looked at each other nervously. Out of the corner of her eye, Mindy saw the lady set down her pen and glance up at them. Mindy started laughing and smacked Danny’s chest playfully.

“Forgive me. We haven’t been married that long. It’s been three weeks. Sometimes I forget that my last name isn’t Lahiri anymore.”

Danny nodded, catching her drift. He laughed along with her. “Yeah, when you’ve had the same last name for thirty plus years it’s hard to adjust so quickly.”

Mindy pulled away and glared at him. “Excuse me?”

Danny had no clue where he’d gone wrong. He’d only been playing along with her scenario. “What?”

“How old did you say I was?”

Danny narrowed his eyes at her, denying her claim. He’d estimated her age to be honest, but maybe he’d been further off than he thought. Mindy glared at him a bit longer before turning her attention back to the desk.

“Now, here’s your key and I’ll show you up to your room,” the lady said before she led them upstairs.

They followed behind her as they silently took in the rest of the building. It looked like it was old. The walls were probably thin and the beds were probably lumpy. It was the vibe that Mindy picked up from the place.

“Now I’m sorry to tell you that even though we usually offer breakfast and dinner to our guests, unfortunately we can’t tonight because our cook fell ill.”

Mindy whipped her head around to look at Danny. She looked like a sad, pathetic child who just wanted what she couldn’t have.

Danny tried to ignore the stricken look on her face as he said, “That’s alright. We understand.”

They opened the door to the room, which of course had only one bed, Mindy noted. Mindy threw herself down on the bed and Danny stood and evaluated the situation.

“Ah screw it,” Mindy heard Danny mutter under his breath. Before she could process anything, he ran out the door and chased down the hall after the owner. Mindy pulled herself up off the bed to see what he was doing.

“Listen, I don’t want to inconvenience you, but if you’d like I could throw something together for dinner.”

Mindy could see the woman evaluating Danny’s offer. Suddenly she nodded and reached out her hand to shake his. Mindy smiled knowing she would finally get food. The chips at the train station definitely hadn’t been enough to tamp down her hunger.

Danny trotted back in looking pleased with himself. “Would you like to go to the store with me to get food?” He asked happily.

Mindy was amused by how happy he seemed, but she couldn’t fathom the idea of moving. “That’s a sweet offer, but I’m just gonna stay here. Maybe not move until you finish dinner.”

“Oh come on, it’s not that far. She said it’s like a few blocks away.”

Mindy whined, “Danny. Please just let me stay here. I think I may take a shower while you’re gone. If I promise to help you around the kitchen or whatever, can I just stay here?”

Danny eyed her skeptically before eventually nodding. He leaned forward slightly and sniffed in her general direction. “Yeah, a shower may not be a bad idea.” He quickly ducked to dodge the pillow Mindy threw at him.

“You jerk! I bet you smell terrible. Way worse than me!”

Danny shrugged as he laughed. “It’s possible. But you know guys don’t really care about that.”

“Yeah, because you’re all gross.”

“Mhmm. Sure,” Danny replied as he started to head out the door. “Why don’t you just go shower, you smelly lady.”

Mindy gasped. “I’ll throw more than a pillow at you if you don’t leave right now, Mister.”

Danny laughed at her as he shut the door behind him. Mindy laid back on the bed and thought of what a weird day it had been. And of all the weird things to happen, the weirdest might be the feeling of regret she felt when she heard Danny’s fading footsteps. Given that it was nearly the first time she’d really been alone all day, she should feel relief. Instead, she was laying there almost wishing tagged along with him.

She was getting out of the shower when she heard her phone ring. There was a quick bit of hope in her that it could be Danny and he needed her for something. Then she remembered that Danny didn’t even have her number. She looked at the screen as she picked it up and she saw Cliff’s face. Oh right. Her boyfriend.

“Hey Cliff,” Mindy answered.

“Mindy! Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to get ahold of you all day and I couldn’t reach you. What is going on?”

It hit Mindy that she finally had service. She pulled her phone away and noticed the missed calls and texts that must have rolled in once they reached a service area. She could still hear him going on and on. “Well I was going to surprise you but my plan went a bit awry.”

“What do you mean? What kind of surprise?” Cliff asked excitedly.

“Well I was coming to meet you in New York. But my flight from Chicago to New York had to have an emergency landing and I got stuck in Ohio and now I’m trying to work my way to New York. It’s just taking me a lot longer than I expected.”

“Mindy, that’s so sweet of you. I love it.”

Mindy sighed quietly. “Yeah.”

“I miss you, Baby.”

Mindy smiled to herself. “I miss you too, Cliff.”

“I can’t wait to see you.”

“I know. I can’t wait to see you too.”

“Oh hey, Mindy, I have to go! I’ll call you later. I love you.”

“Love you too!” Mindy sighed to herself as she hung up the phone. She hated herself for how fake she sounded.

Out in the hall, it was apparent that Mindy’s observation of thin walls had been accurate. Danny had heard her conversation with her boyfriend. He shook his head and leaned back against the wall.

“What are you doing?” he mumbled to himself. He lightly slapped his face a couple of times before knocking on the door.

Mindy quickly answered the door and greeted him with a confused face. “Don’t you have the key?”

Danny edged in the room around her. “Yes, but I figured after last time I’d knock before I entered a room, lest my arm be nearly broken again.”

“Lest? Wow, what a drama queen.”

“Whatever. I’m about to head back downstairs to start dinner. Care to join?” As Mindy opened her mouth to speak, Danny continued. “You did promise that you’d help me.”

“Yes, I will come help. Just let me put on actual clothes.” Danny quickly eyed her in the robe she was wearing before turning away to go downstairs. Mindy hadn’t missed him checking her out. He wasn’t exactly subtle about it. She’d have expected to be outraged but what she was feeling was quite the opposite.

Danny was in the kitchen trying to get Mindy and her body out of his head when she strolled in with a smile on her face. “Hey Babycakes!” she exclaimed as she took her place next to him at the counter.

“Babycakes?” He asked suspiciously.

“I thought our _friend_ might be listening in. I wanted to really sell it.” Danny merely nodded in reply.

Mindy watched in awe as Danny set about the kitchen, chopping this, stirring that. He looked like a pro. He had full concentration. He seemed to barely even need her help. She was mainly fetching utensils and dishes for him.

“Danny, this is really impressive. Where did you learn to cook like this?”

Danny smiled like he was remembering something. “My mom taught me. She’ll still pop into the Inn and whip up something spectacular. But I try my best every other day.”

“Wait, you actually make fancy food for your guests? Not just sandwiches on dry bread?” Mindy teased.

Danny smirked. “Well only for the guests that don’t try to break my arm.” Mindy reached over from her chair and started slapping him almost playfully. He fought her off for a bit before he grabbed her arms and claimed he needed to finish dinner.

After lots of work on Danny’s part and some salivating on Mindy’s part, a beautifully golden brown chicken pot pie was served to the table in the main dining room. The owner, whose name was apparently Mary, and her husband sat down at the table in awe. One of the other couples staying there filtered in after smelling the finished product.

“So I couldn’t help but notice something going on in the barn,” Danny asked, trying to make small talk over dinner.

“Yeah, there’s always a big party in the barn this time of year. There’s a couple that rents it out from us for the night and they throw a big do for the whole town. It’s actually a good time,” Mary’s husband answered.

“Oh that does sound like fun!” Mindy chimed in. Danny looked at Mindy with an amused smirk. “What? It does!” she defended, elbowing him in the arm.

“I just would never guess a big city girl like you would want to go to a party in a barn.”

“Well Daniel, you should know by now that I am full of surprises.”

Danny looked over at her eating his food with gusto. She had a huge smile on her face as she looked back at him. He smiled back. “Yeah. You sure are,” he replied thoughtfully.

“Well aren’t you two just the sweetest couple,” Mary said after witnessing their exchange. She turned to the other couple at the table saying, “They’ve only been married three weeks. Aren’t they just too cute?”

Mindy chuckled and thanked her as she laid her arm across Danny’s shoulders. Danny felt the heat of her hand near his neck. He looked over at her and couldn’t stop himself. They were trying to keep up a charade right? He leaned over and kissed her on the temple. Mindy looked up at him with a serious look in her eye. He could tell her mind was moving a mile a minute. He smiled at her quickly and she removed her hand from his shoulder. He got nervous for a second until she gently squeezed his arm and smiled back at him. She picked up her glass and started wishing she was drinking something stronger than tea.

The owners of the B&B insisted that they would clean up since Danny cooked and that Danny and Mindy should go off and have fun. Mindy hoped what she was wearing was good enough for a barn party. Since all her clothes were back in the trunk of Danny’s car, it would have to do. She and Danny got closer to the barn and noticed that it was pretty hopping. Once she was close enough to pick up the song, Mindy realized it was a song she knew.

“Oh my God! I love this song!” She grabbed Danny’s hand and ran in the barn, dragging him along behind her. As she got close to the dance floor, she released his hand and ran forward to join the dancing crowd. She stood there swaying and basically flailing her arms around to the beat. At least that’s what it looked like to Danny.

He laughed to himself as he watched her dance happily. He stopped and thought about the fact that he’d only known her for a day. Twenty four hours ago, he’d found her rather self-assured and loud, bordering on annoying. Now he was amused by basically everything she did. How did that happen in the span of a day? All they’d done is walk and alternate between silence, chatting, and bickering.  As he watched her dance so freely, he found it endearing. He needed to forget about these feelings that were creeping up on him and drop her off with her boyfriend. But as she beckoned him to join her on the dancefloor, he thought there was a good chance he might fall a bit further before that happened.  


	6. Shut Up and Dance With Me

Mindy would never have imagined in her wildest nightmares that she would be at a party in a barn. Even worse than that, she never would have imagined she’d be enjoying herself. Once she finally got Danny to join her out on the floor, it was even more fun. He may have only been standing in place and lightly swaying, but she was going to change that.

She reached out and grabbed one of his hands and twirled herself. She then started dancing closer to him to inspire him to try and have a good time. He looked at her and shook his head amusedly. He twirled her again, watching her laugh as he did so.

“Where did you suddenly get all this energy? You should be dead right now after all the walking we did.”

Mindy laughed happily. “I don’t know. But I’m not gonna knock it. I’m having a good time. You should try it sometime,” she said, poking him at the end. 

Finally there seemed to be a song he enjoyed and he started to move. Like really move. Mindy never would have guessed those moves coming from that man. He was amazing. She felt like she was staring at him.

“What?” He asked, slowing down and looking self-conscious.

“Nothing,” Mindy replied, smiling at him. “I’m just impressed.” Danny got a rather smug look on his face and kept dancing, pulling her in closer. She was surprised at first but went with it. Danny was enjoying Mindy’s proximity until he remembered that she was with someone else. He looked down at her for a second before trying to inconspicuously pull back.

The song started to fade out and Danny picked up the beginning bars of “I Want You Back” by Jackson 5. He looked toward the DJ table, curious how this song came into rotation. He heard Mindy laughing next to him. Turning to look at her, he noticed a nostalgic look on her face. “I love this song.”

Danny furrowed his brow. “I don’t know what’s more interesting to me: the fact that this song is being played at a party in a _barn_ or that you know a song by Jackson 5.”

“Umm, it’s Michael Jackson.”

“Like baby Michael Jackson.”

“Whatever.” Mindy rolled her eyes at Danny as she swayed to the music. She belted out the chorus happily, poking Danny to stress certain parts of the lyrics. “Oh I do now. I want you back!” She sang at him. She looked so content. It was starting to feel contagious. The song just proved to keep reminding Danny that she wasn’t his for the taking though. He plastered on a rather fake smile and modeled her swaying movements.

Mindy eventually dragged Danny with her off the floor to find something to drink. They stood there silently, observing the party before them. Mindy looked over and noticed the owners of the B&B along the other wall. She knew they could see her and Danny. She slowly tried to creep closer to Danny. He tensed up when she threw her arm around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. He started to get uncomfortable with their stance and grabbed her hand to drag her back to the dance floor. If they were focusing on dancing, maybe he could focus less on his building attraction to her.

“Are you okay?” Mindy asked.

Danny shrugged and kept dancing. “I’m fine.”

She looked at him skeptically. There was something up with him. She could feel it. The crowd shifted and she could see the owners had been joined by the other couple now. Mindy saw them point at her and Danny with weird looks on their faces. What she did next she would swear for the rest of her life was pure instinct.

She stepped closer to Danny and before he could react, she put her hand along his neck, pulled him down and kissed him. Again, she felt him tense but she didn’t let go. She moved her lips gently against his. She felt his hands slowly move around to hold her closer to him as he started to kiss her back. The kiss was starting to ramp up to something hotter, something that would make Mindy start questioning things. She figured they’d proved their point so she pulled back. Danny looked down at her with a pleased but confused expression.

“We, uh, have an audience,” Mindy explained with a forced smile. She could swear she saw disappointment streak across Danny’s face but she couldn’t think about that now. He nodded and looked back to follow her gaze. They both smiled and waved at the owners.

Danny looked back at Mindy. “Listen, I’m pretty tired and I haven’t had a shower yet. I’m gonna head back.” Mindy nodded at him. Figuring they still had an audience, he leaned in and kissed her cheek. Even if no one was watching them, he could always justify it to himself that someone _could_ have been.

Mindy watched Danny leave and started to feel guilty. She shouldn’t have initiated that kiss. She couldn’t deny that she felt something from it, though. Mindy didn’t like the idea of him sulking off by himself. She chased after him and claimed she was tired too. Danny looked at her doubtfully but kept walking. Not even knowing if the other couples were watching, Mindy slipped her hand into Danny’s and swung their arms as they walked back.

Mindy decided to be a good person and take the arm chair in the room so that Danny could have the bed. He was getting out of the shower when he noticed her contorting to try and fit comfortably in the chair. He stared at her to see if she actually thought she’d be comfortable. She made a face, proving her discomfort and Danny knew he was right.

“Mindy.”

“What?” Mindy asked innocently.

“Don’t make me say it, just come on,” Danny said, gesturing to the bed.

“Say what?”

“Look, we’re two mature adults. This bed is big enough for two people. No sense in making you miserable. Just come on. Don’t make it weird.”  

Mindy eyed Danny to see if he meant it. When he just stared at her she decided that the bed, even sharing it, did sound much more appealing than the chair.

“Thank you.”

Danny nodded in reply. Mindy climbed in next to him and looked over to evaluate him. She’d spent a full day with him. By her standards, she should know so much more about him. She continued to look at him while he stared at his phone.

“What are you doing?” He asked without turning to look at her.

“I just I feel like I don’t know you.”

“Probably because we met like 36 hours ago.”

“Just tell me something about yourself that you don’t tell a lot of people.”

Danny looked at her exasperatedly. “And why would I do that?”

“Just work with me here. I feel like I owe you so much but I barely know you. I’d like to know more about you.”

“Eh, you don’t owe me that much,” Danny said with a shrug, turning back to his phone.

“You’re impossible.”

“It’s one of my best traits,” Danny replied with a smirk.

Mindy sighed dramatically. “Fine. But can I just ask you one question?”

Danny turned to appraise her. “Only one? I doubt that.” She gave him a pleading expression. “Fine, what?”

“I just want to know how you could walk away from being a doctor and not even blink. I could never give it up.”

Danny stared at her for a long time. He got asked this question a lot, but it was never one he wanted to answer. Something about Mindy was making him actually consider it, though.

“It wasn’t easy. But I found myself at a crossroads. It was the right time for me to make a big life change and so I did. And I really never looked back.”

“I’m sorry, but when is it the “right time” to make a big life change?” Mindy asked.

Danny looked forward and paused for a while before answering. Mindy thought maybe she’d pressed too hard.

“It’s the right time to make a big life change when you find your wife cheating on you the same day that your mother calls you and tells you that she’s sick.”

Mindy’s jaw fell open. “Oh my God,” she whispered. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to comfort him in some way. Given that they were in the same bed though, she thought maybe that was a touch too far.

Danny shrugged. “Eh, it’s in the past.”

“Danny.”

“Look, it was hell. There’s no point in lying about that. But I moved out to take care of Ma and before I knew it, I didn’t want to leave. I may have never confronted my demons in New York, but I’ve been mainly happy where I am in my own suspended alternate life.”

“Really?” Mindy asked hesitantly. “You’ve actually been happy?”

“Do I miss being a doctor? Yes, of course I do. But do I miss what being a doctor did to my marriage? No.”

Mindy turned her body to face him. “Don’t say that. Don’t be that person.”

“What person?”

“The person who gets hurt and then blames themselves. It wasn’t like you were doing anything wrong. You were helping people. That’s important too.”

“I don’t think she saw it that way.”

“Well then screw her. She’s an idiot. And she clearly never deserved you. Any woman who would cheat on a man like you clearly has something wrong with her.”

“A man like me?” Danny asked, intrigued by her comment.

Mindy blushed, a bit embarrassed at how she’d phrased it. But she pushed her shoulders back and confronted his question. “Yeah. A man like you. A man who will drive a stranger states away because she’s lost. A man who will walk said woman miles away to make sure she gets where she’s going. A man who will beat the living hell out of someone because he’s trying to protect someone else. A man who is kind and smart and really great. A man like you.”

Danny smiled and looked down. Maintaining eye contact was too much. How could she be taken? Why couldn’t he even have a chance with her? It wasn’t fair. It had been years since he’d met someone with even half as much personality as Mindy. He’d never met someone so ridiculous and lovely and there was nothing he could do about it. Maybe there was a chance her boyfriend would say no.

“What if he says no?” Danny asked without thinking.

Mindy was shocked as she turned to look back at him. “I’m sorry, before I left out one. A man who will happily play on girls’ insecurities.”

“I’m sorry. I just – I was wondering. You know, what if he did?”

Mindy opened and closed her mouth a few times before answering. “Well…then I’ll know. I’ll know that I wasted the last three years of my life. I’ll know that we want different things. I’ll know that I made this whole stupid trip for no reason. I know that it’s time for me to move on with my life. I’ll finally know.”

Danny swore he could see tears glistening in Mindy’s eyes. He felt like a jackass. “Look Mindy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…I –”

“It’s fine, Danny. It’s a valid question. It’s one that’s been rattling around in my head since I made the decision to do this.”

“I’m still sorry. That was insensitive of me.”

“It was, but I accept your apology.”

Danny smiled at her, hoping she knew he really was apologetic. “Thanks.”

She nodded at him before scooting down in the bed and covering herself, effectively ending their conversation. Danny stared at her for a second before doing the same. They both laid there awake, so many questions running through their heads. Mindy knew that she was stupid to engage him in conversation. She’d wanted to know him better, but in the end, she’d only felt more drawn to him. She feared she’d given too much away in her description of him. Coupled with her impromptu kiss, she spent the time till she fell asleep wondering where to go from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for still reading! I hope you're enjoying it! There's still a ways to go. I hope you'll stick with me!  
> What are you thinking so far? Sorry this chapter was a bit long!


	7. A Train of Thought

As Danny woke up, the first thing he noticed, the only thing he noticed, was Mindy wrapped around him. Danny laid there wondering what he should do. He had his options. He scooch out from under her and pretend it never happened. He could try to wake her up. Or he could lay there and revel in the feeling of waking up next to someone for the first time in too long. Undoubtedly, the last option won out. He tried to fall back asleep as he curled slightly into Mindy. The last thing he noticed before he dozed back off was the feeling of Mindy’s arms tightening around him.

Mindy wasn’t all that surprised to wake up way too close to Danny. She was a cuddler. Cliff would give her crap for it. He claimed he wasn’t into cuddling. But what she did in her sleep wasn’t her fault. That’s what she’d have to keep telling herself about this incident. Danny was asleep and so Mindy felt free to stare at him for however long she wanted. She noted his crazy long eyelashes and his kissable lips. She remembered how it felt to have his lips against hers. She couldn’t lie to herself and say she didn’t enjoy it. There was maybe even a part of her that would be open to doing it again.

Except that she couldn’t. She untangled herself from him and laid on her back staring up at the ceiling. She was on her way to Cliff. He was a good man and she was happy with him. Or at least happy enough. The idea of Danny was a product of nerves. He was kind and he’d been good to her, but she didn’t really know him. It would be ridiculous to throw away a three year relationship on a man she barely knew. Without looking back at Danny, she climbed out of bed, getting herself ready to see Cliff in hopefully a few hours.

One train connection later, Danny and Mindy were waiting for the train that would take them to New York City. Danny weaved back to Mindy, presenting her with a large coffee. She looked up, quite surprised at the gesture. She smiled and thanked him, noting how this time he actually got her coffee.

They were watching Ohio fall away behind them when Danny turned to her. “So how are you going to do it?”

Mindy looked at him curiously. “Do what?”

“Propose.”

Mindy looked shocked for a moment. “Oh. Yeah.” She nodded her head a few times, processing the idea. “You know, it’s funny. I did this so impulsively, I never even had a plan in mind.” She looked over at Danny earnestly. “How would you want to be proposed to?”

“Excuse me?”

“Just give me an example to go off of. There are way more instances of what women would want than men.”

Danny sighed thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I, I guess I’d just want you to go someplace special. And then just do it. I don’t know. It’s not really something I’ve ever thought of before.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” Mindy replied, looking a little disappointed.

Danny turned in his seat to look at her. “Look, if he was going to propose to you, how would you want him to do it?”

Mindy met his gaze. She looked nervous to answer. “I guess I would want him to take me somewhere romantic. Maybe somewhere that meant something to both of us. I’d want to have one of the most romantic nights of my life. One that I’d always remember. I’d just want it to be special,” Mindy explained. “I wouldn’t hate a nice romantic speech praising how wonderful I am,” Mindy added with a laugh.

Danny chuckled with her. “You know, my initial thought of you was really wrong.”

“Oh God. Do I even want to know?” Mindy asked, laughing.

Danny shrugged with a smile. “It’s not that bad. You just seemed more, um, uh – what’s a good word for shallow?”

Mindy punched him in the arm. “You thought I was shallow?!”

“No, shallow is the wrong word. You just seemed like your life was all flash and no substance. Like if someone asked you what you couldn’t live without you’d say some dress that is ridiculously expensive. But I was wrong. That was the point I was trying to make.”

Mindy looked at Danny with a concerned look in her eyes. “Hmmm…”

“What?”

“That’s just an interesting observation.”

“What is?” Danny asked. He was nervous that she was mad at him.

“What I couldn’t live without. That’s just an interesting thought. What is it for you?”

Danny paused for a long time. “I guess that’s kind of a broad category. It could be an item or a person. I think for me it’s kind of irrelevant.”

Mindy was confused. “Why’s that?”

With a grim face he answered, “Because everything I thought I couldn’t live without I’ve successfully spent the last few years without.”

Mindy reached out and squeezed his arm gently. Then she thought about herself. What was it in her life that she couldn’t live without? Maybe he was right. Maybe her life didn’t have enough substance to it if she couldn’t think of one thing.

“Danny, have you ever thought about going back?”

“No.”

“Seriously?”

“It’s just easier to blot it from my mind. I’m happy where I am. Why rock the boat?”

“Because maybe you could be _happier_ somewhere else. Particularly somewhere you know made you happy before.”

“Why are you so intent on me missing New York? Maybe I’ve moved on. I mean obviously I have physically…”

“I think I’d believe you if you didn’t have this stupid awestruck face every time you talk about the place. Or if you didn’t try so hard to prove to me how terrible it is. I know that tactic. You’re trying to prove it to yourself. And if you really hated it as much as you say, then why would you go so far out of your way to take a perfect stranger there?”

“Because I knew I could make a lot of money?” Danny replied pithily.

“It’s not that, you loser!” Mindy exclaimed.

“Look, Mindy, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I’m fine. I’m here to help you on the rest of your way and then I’m good to go back to the inn.”

“Ahh, the Getaway,” Mindy stated. “Such an apropos name.”

“Well we think so…”

“I think you should rename it though,” Mindy said.

“To?” Danny asked hesitantly.

“The Runaway.”

“Mindy!” Danny nearly whined. “Can you please just let this go?”

She shrugged and turned in her seat so she could lay her head against the window next to her. Danny watched her settle in for the rest of their trip. His past wasn’t his only hesitance for arriving in New York. He knew it would signal the end of their time together. And whether she was single or taken, he couldn’t deny that she had him thinking. She was right. He had been running away for the last few years. Maybe when they got to New York, he’d revisit his old life. Surely it couldn’t be _that_ painful for a day or so.

They had arrived in New York City. Mindy was buzzing with excitement. The city had always had that effect on her. She loved the hustle and bustle and the sounds of the city. She didn’t realize how much she’d missed the place. She looked over to Danny to see if he was confirming her suspicions. He flagged down a cab at nearly record speed. Clearly you could take the boy out of the city but you couldn’t take the city out of the boy.

Mindy leaned forward and whispered the address to the cabbie. Danny was confused why she was being so secretive. “What, you don’t want me to know what swanky hotel your boyfriend is putting you up in?”

“No it’s not that,” Mindy said nervously. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

Mindy waited for the cab to take off and the doors to lock before she explained. “Look Danny, I feel like you are stuck in a stalemate with life. And you can’t move forward if you haven’t fully dealt with your past.”

Danny looked at Mindy as he could feel his blood pressure spiking with his growing anxiety.

“Mindy, where are we going?”

Mindy took a deep breath. “Staten Island.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am trying to get as many chapters finished before school takes over my life again. There shouldn't be too much more! Thank you for reading and for sticking with me! I've seriously loved all the feedback y'all have been giving me!


	8. In a New York State of Mind

“Danny, the doors are locked and we’re moving at some pretty fast speeds, you might as well stop trying to fight this and give the driver a specific address. All I said was Staten Island and that’s a bit broad.”

Danny looked at Mindy pleadingly. “Why are you doing this?”

Mindy turned and looked at him. She grabbed his arm for emphasis. “The fact that you’re so panicked to go back means something, Danny. It’s stupid for you to be all the way here and not do this. If I hadn’t waltzed into your inn back in Ohio, you’d have spent your life running from your demons.”

“You don’t know that,” Danny replied defiantly.

“You even admitted it! You told me you never faced your demons here. Come on, Danny. You don’t have to talk to anyone. It’s just a look around the place. Sure, maybe it will stir up something, but I think that’s what you need.”

Danny had a pained look on his face when he finally nodded and accepted that this was going to happen. Mindy squeezed his arm in comfort. Finally he gave the cabbie an address and Mindy sat back in her seat, finally at ease. Well somewhat at ease, she still didn’t really know what would happen once they got to Staten.

Danny was silent for most of the ride. It worried Mindy. Granted, in their time together, she’d done most of the talking. But it felt different. She could feel the tension and she was starting to feel guilty. She was about ready to ask the cabbie to turn around and take them to her hotel when Danny leaned toward her with a slight smile on his face as he looked out her window.

They were already in Staten and were passing some short, long building. Mindy saw the nostalgia written across Danny’s face. Clearly the places were familiar to him at the very least.

“That was my elementary school,” Danny explained. Mindy whipped her head back to look at the building disappearing behind them. She turned back and smiled at him. He still looked nervous, but maybe a little happy to be back. They quickly arrived at the address Danny had given. Danny got out first. Mindy stood a ways back from him so he could have the moment to himself. Danny turned around to look for her. She took it as her cue to approach.

“This is where I grew up. This house right here,” he said, pointing to the house directly in front of them.

“You should go knock on the door and tell them that. Maybe they’d let you inside…” Mindy replied.

“I actually know the people who bought Ma’s house. But it’s okay. It’s enough to just see it.”

Mindy looked over to evaluate Danny’s mood. He still seemed a bit tense, but he also seemed happy. She could tell he was reliving his childhood memories as he stood on the sidewalk.

“See that steeple over there?” Danny asked, pointing to a barely visible point beyond some trees. Mindy nodded in reply. “That was my church. St. Mary’s.”

“Let me guess, you were a little altar boy?”

Danny laughed. “Yeah, actually. Even after Ma moved out to Ohio, I still used to go there for church every Sunday.”

“Really? But you lived in the city?”

Danny shrugged. “It was familiar. I knew everyone. I knew the priest. I was comfortable there. I never really found a place closer that I liked as much.”

“Because it didn’t remind you of home as much?” Mindy prodded.

Danny looked over at her thoughtfully. “Probably.”

“Do you want to go over there? Light a candle or something? I only know Catholicism from the movies, so you’ll have to help me out a bit.”

Danny smiled as he stared back at the house. “Nah. Thanks though.” He stood silent for a bit before he turned to look at her and away from the house. “Listen, I know you have to go see Cliff and propose and everything, but do you think you’d have time for lunch?”

Mindy smiled, nodding slowly. “Yeah, I think I have time for that. Where were you thinking?”

“There’s this place in the city that I used to go to all the time. I miss it so much out in Ohio.”

Mindy shrugged and gestured for him to get in the cab. “Then let’s go!”

As they rode back into the city, Danny thought of how great it actually was to go back to Staten. Granted, it wasn’t like they’d seen much. Still, driving down the old roads and seeing the old sights had been really nice. It wasn’t until he was confronted with going back to New York that he realized how much he’d actually missed it. Mindy’d been hitting right on the nail with basically everything she’d said. He didn’t want to let her know that though.

He looked over at her. She was sitting on her phone and occasionally looking out the window. He didn’t want to think about what she was going to be doing next. He still didn’t think it was very fair that someone as great as she was would come into his life so suddenly and he didn’t even have the option to do anything about it. The longer he was with her, the more he realized how strong of feelings he could develop for her. She intrigued him and challenged him and comforted him. It had been way too long since someone had been in his life who met all of those criteria. Still, she was taken.

Sometimes he wondered how happy she actually was with Cliff. There were little comments she would make and he wondered if she would be happier without him. She was certainly alright delaying her chance to see him. What did that say?

He needed to stop thinking about her though. She’d be a good memory when he went back to the slow life of the inn. He’d remember bickering with her and dancing with her and everything else. He’d probably end up dwelling too long on how it felt to wake up with her snuggled in to him. Soon though, she’d go back to California, leaving him with nothing but two to three days’ worth of memories that jolted him out of the otherwise dull life he was living. He was happy, but she showed him that he certainly could be much happier.

They got out at the restaurant and Mindy stared up at the place. “Shut up.”

“What?” Danny was worried she was upset.

“I _love_ this place! I only ate here a few times because I was in med school, but I loved this place. I always wanted to come here more often but I could never afford it. And then I left for California and forgot all about it.” She turned to look at Danny happily. “Daniel Castellano, this is awesome.”

Danny smiled happily at her. As he was stepping forward, a fellow pedestrian collided with him. “Oh sorry,” Danny quickly said. He looked down to see a blonde woman picking up her things. She looked up at him and he froze. Of course.

“Danny?”

“Christina,” Danny replied, his voice suddenly thick.

Mindy turned around from the door of the restaurant to see what was going on. She noticed that the woman talking to Danny was tall, thin, and beautiful. For reasons that seemed too dangerous to explore, Mindy felt a stab of jealousy. She decided to edge closer and see what was happening.

“How are you?” The woman asked him.

“I’m fine. Uh, You?” Danny replied in a strangled voice.

Mindy could tell Danny was uncomfortable. It was her turn to step in. She strolled right up to the two of them and stretched out her hand. “Hi. I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Mindy, Danny’s girlfriend. And you are?”

Danny turned his head to look at Mindy. She kept her eyes trained on the other woman. Danny slowly wound his arm around Mindy’s back.

The woman looked fairly baffled at Mindy. She shook her head quickly and met her for the shake. “I’m Christina. I’m…Danny’s ex-wife.”

Mindy looked over at Danny quickly. She now felt responsible for this whole thing happening. Danny’s face was fairly blank. It was concerning for Mindy. In the time they’d spent together, even if it was of indifference, Danny’d always had some sort of expression.

“Wow, the ex-wife. Umm, nice to meet you,” Mindy answered, trying to act the part.

“So I have to say, Danny, I’m surprised to see you here. I’d heard you’d moved.”

Danny swallowed quickly. “Yeah, actually I did…”

“To Los Angeles,” Mindy added.

“What?” Christina asked looking shocked.

“Well when a great medical practice offers you the job of a lifetime, you can’t really turn them down,” Mindy said, looking more at Danny than at Christina.

“So what brings you back there then?”

Danny still looked pretty blank, so Mindy decided to continue taking the reins. “Well, I’ve been working like crazy lately. My hours have been insane. I felt like I’d barely seen Danny lately. It was delivery after delivery after delivery,” she looked at Danny quickly before pointedly looking back at Christina, “But you know, it’s so nice to be with someone who just gets it. Who gets the crazy hours that I keep. I feel awful not seeing him but he understands. It’s seriously so great.”

Mindy let the comment hang there, thinking of what Danny had said about his marriage and his job.

“So you’re an OBGYN too?”

“Yes,” Mindy replied hesitantly. She realized she’d never asked what kind of doctor Danny was. It seemed at bit too strange for her that they were both OBGYNs. Mindy ran her hand across Danny’s shoulders. “We actually work at the same practice. It’s nice, you know, sharing my passion with the person I love,” She added, looking at Danny with a faux-loving glance. Danny looked at her and smiled. She could still tell how tense he was.

“So anyway, one day I come home from a hellish delivery and Danny has two tickets to New York. He’d already arranged it with work and everything. He just wanted to surprise me because he knew we were both overworked. And so we came out here for a little vacation,” Mindy concluded with a smile.

Christina still had a shocked look on her face as she looked back and forth between Danny and Mindy. “Huh. So how long have you two been together?”

Mindy had no clue how long Danny had been divorced. She looked over at him. He luckily didn’t need cueing. “It’ll be two years next Tuesday. That was part of the reason for the trip,” Danny replied, squeezing Mindy in closer to him affectionately.

“Seriously? Two years? Wow. Didn’t take long,” Christina said with a particularly bitter tone.

“We were legally divorced by then. If I recall, we were still married when you decided to move on,” Danny replied with a serious look on his face. Mindy was nervous how this would continue.

Christina looked like she wanted to reply but thought better of it. She simply nodded once. “Well, it was certainly something running into you, Danny. Nice to meet you, Milly.”

“It’s Mindy,” Danny corrected.

“Right. Well, bye,” Christina said, walking away quickly.

Danny turned to watch her go. Mindy looked at him nervously. He’d been in a great mood before. If they’d just walked in the restaurant right away, they wouldn’t have seen her. Mindy felt somewhat responsible. If Danny had been home in Ohio, then he certainly wouldn’t have seen her.

Danny looked at Mindy. “So…lunch?” He walked toward the door and she blocked him. She reached out and put her hands on his arms.

“Are you okay?”

“Mindy, I’m fine.”

“Sure, yeah. But you can talk about it. It can’t have been easy running into her,” Mindy prodded.

Danny shrugged. “I always thought it would be worse. I think if I’d been alone it definitely would have been worse,” he grabbed one of her hands where it still was on his arm, “So thanks for that. But I don’t feel that bad. It sucked, but it had to happen at some point, right?”

Mindy was still concerned. “I guess…”

“Besides, you told me if I never face my demons then I’ll never get over stuff. Well, that was one of the biggest ones right there. I may not have said everything I wanted to, but it was enough. I promise.”

“Okay,” Mindy conceded. As they walked inside, Mindy turned to him again. “Sorry about making up that whole story. But I could just tell that an Inn in Ohio with your mom was not going to impress her.”

Danny chuckled lightly. “You would be right about that. It’s okay. I appreciated the help.” Mindy smiled brightly at him.

As they were being showed to their table, Mindy realized she was a bit too comfortable being Danny’s pretend girlfriend and pretend wife. Nonetheless, she looped her arm through his and walked to their table alongside him. He patted her hand where it clutched his arm. She looked up at him as he studied the menu. He had a broad smile on his face, clearly happy to have returned to this place. Suddenly it hit Mindy that she didn’t want her time with Danny Castellano to end yet. But what could she do to extend it? The next step was proposing, and as she looked at Danny across the table from her, she didn’t really know how she felt about that.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still probably a couple more chapter. I hate to say it, but updates may be slowing down. We'll see how this weekend goes.  
> Anyway, thank you for reading and for all the comments! I absolutely love reading them!  
> I hope you're still enjoying this!


	9. One Last Look

Walking from the restaurant to the hotel was taking a much shorter amount of time than Mindy had anticipated. She’d figured it was further away than it really was. That was going to be her way to extend her time with Danny. When he started to flag down a cab, she insisted they walk. She’d reasoned that after all the walking they’d done the day before surely they could walk the little distance to the hotel. Really it was no struggle because it was a short distance. Her heart sank a bit when she saw the hotel not far off in the distance.

“Ahh, there she is,” Danny said cheerily.

His cheery tone was all Mindy needed to confirm that her conflicted feelings were silly. He was probably happy to be rid of her and get back to his life. She had no way of knowing that his cheeriness was completely fake and that he too was trying to figure out how to drag out their time together. Mindy spotted an ATM on the same block as the hotel. She knew she needed to make good on all she owed Danny and she was running out of excuses to keep them together.

She walked to it and withdrew one thousand dollars. In reality, after he protected her from the guy at the diner and walked her where she needed to go, she owed him so much more than that. She grabbed the money and turned to hand it to him.

“Here. Also, please send me the bill for your towing and the new tire. It’s the least I could do,” she said, thrusting the money toward him.

He kept his hands in his pockets and stared at her with a bemused expression. “Mindy, I’m not gonna take your money. It’s fine.”

She kept pushing it at him to encourage him to take it. “It’s not fine, Danny. You came all this way for basically no reason other than me. Please, just take this. I’ll feel terrible if you don’t.”

“You paid for our night at that B&B. Let’s just call it even,” Danny insisted.

“That’s not even close to even, Danny. I never paid for my night at your inn and –”

“I can guarantee you it is not that much a night,” Danny mentioned, pointing at the stack of money in front of him.

“And plus you left your car on the side of the road and walked miles with me and beat up my attacker and made dinner for all of us and gave into basically my every whim and let me share the bed so I wasn’t uncomfortable. Please, Danny. I already feel like I’ll never be able to repay you. Please just take this so I can feel slightly less guilty. Take your mother out for a nice meal. Well, it’s small town Ohio, so take her out for like six or seven nice meals. Just please take this so I don’t feel as bad as I do right now.”

“Why do you feel bad? I haven’t minded helping you out,” Danny asked.

“I know. But people don’t really do this. At least not to me. They don’t just help out random strangers and then ask for nothing in return. I don’t know what else I can give you, so please just take this,” Mindy pleaded, holding the money out for him. He shook his head but conceded and took the money, stashing it in his pocket. “Thank you,” Mindy said, sighing.

Danny walked with her a few buildings down to entrance of her hotel. He really didn’t want to say goodbye. It was irrational, but Mindy’d done just as much for him in the time they’d been together as she’d cited about him. She turned around to face him, looking like she had a lot to say.

“Um,” she started, unsure of herself, “Can I give you my address to ship my luggage? Or I guess Cliff and I could swing back through to pick it up on the way back…”

Danny quickly interjected. “You can just give me your address. I’ll get it to you. No need to make such an unnecessary detour.” Danny absolutely did not want to see her with him. He wouldn’t mind seeing her, but it would be a whole new level of terrible to see them together.

“Okay.”

After giving him her address, they didn’t really know what more there was to say. They both stood there rather awkwardly, not wanting to part. Danny, oddly enough, was the first one to speak.

“Thank you, Mindy, you know for getting me back out here. I don’t think I realized how much I missed it. I appreciate it. Even the whole sneaky business with the cab.”

Mindy smiled weakly. “You’re welcome. Thank you for…everything.” Mindy closed the small distance between them and hugged Danny. She felt his arms wrap around her as he completed the hug. She didn’t want to let go. He’d been a great companion and she was genuinely going to be sad to see him leave. Finally they broke apart and stood there looking at each other again.

“Well I should…” Danny said, motioning toward the door. Mindy nodded and smiled sadly. Danny turned for the door.

“Danny.”

He turned around quickly. “Yeah?”

“Umm…have a safe trip back.”

“Thanks. Uh, you too,” Danny replied. Danny turned back to the door and Mindy turned toward the rest of the lobby. Danny couldn’t leave though. He turned back.

“Mindy.”

She turned around excitedly. “Yeah?”

As Danny opened his mouth to speak someone else called her name.

“Mindy? You’re finally here!”

Mindy’s eyes went wide and she turned around to see Cliff approaching her. “Cliff. Hi.” He ran right up to her and wrapped her in a big hug. Danny’s stomach clenched. It was stupid. She was always Cliff’s. Danny never even had a chance. He was frozen to the spot.

Mindy looked from Cliff to Danny. He was still standing there. She almost missed what Cliff was saying to her.

“You know I’ve been thinking, it’s really silly that we aren’t married,” Cliff said happily.

“Wait, what?” Mindy asked, stunned and confused.

Right before her Cliff dropped down on one knee. He started making some big speech about their lives together. Danny didn’t know why he was still there. Suddenly in his head he heard the song that had been playing the night before in the barn.

_Oh Darling I was blind to let you go. But now that I’ve seen you in his arms, I want you back. Oh I do now, I want you back._

He flashed back to dancing with her and to when she grabbed him and kissed him. Suddenly he wasn’t frozen anymore. He knew he couldn’t see what she said. He knew she’d say yes. And even though he had no right for her to think of him, part of him wanted her to. He’d felt something between them. But he got her to New York, so it was over now. Before Cliff could finish making his big speech, Danny turned around and left.

Mindy was shocked that Cliff was actually proposing. It was weird to her though, that as she was getting engaged, her fiancé wouldn’t actually be the last person she kissed. She couldn’t get Danny out of her brain. Cliff finally said the words she’d been dying to hear. The feeling was different now.

“Mindy Lahiri, will you marry me?”

Mindy smiled and took a deep breath. She quickly looked over to see Danny. He was gone though. She couldn’t deny the sinking feeling in her stomach at his disappearance. Why should he stay though? Shaking her head, hoping to clear Danny from it, she looked back at Cliff saying, “Yes.”

Cliff gathered her up into his arms, holding her to him. It felt so different compared to the last pair of arms that had held her. As he kissed her, it felt different compared to the last person who had kissed her. She was engaged though. From now on, her time with Danny Castellano would just have to be hidden in her mind. It would just have to be a confusing memory. In all likelihood, it would be the one that haunted her forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping to wrap this up quickly! Thanks for sticking with me! I really have appreciated all the support!  
> As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts!   
> Thank you for reading! :)


	10. Back to Reality

Mindy’s days were starting to blur together. She couldn’t stop looking at the ring on her finger. She couldn’t stop thinking of ideas for the wedding. She couldn’t stop planning ways to decorate their new apartment that they were approved for. She also couldn’t stop thinking about Danny.

She felt like a fraud. All her friends wanted to hear the story of how Cliff proposed. When she got back to work it was all anyone wanted to hear. She didn’t know how to tell them that she basically wasn’t paying attention to it.

Cliff decided to have a spur of the moment engagement party for them. He reasoned that it was also a great time to have a moving party. Cliff had taken the day off to prepare for everything. They had only been back from New York for a week. Even though he told her he really wanted her help, Mindy couldn’t take off work.

She was leaving for lunch when she got a call on her cell phone. There was a larger part of her than she cared to admit that hoped it was Danny. No such luck. She checked her phone and it was a New York number. Even though she was confused, she answered the call anyway.

“Hello?”

“Mindy Lahiri?”

“Yes, this is Mindy Lahiri.”

“Oh Mindy, great! This is Marc Shulman. From New York?”

“Oh! Wow, Dr. Shulman, how surprising to hear from you,” Mindy replied, wondering how this was happening.

“I figured it would be. Listen, I know it’s been a while since we’ve worked together, and I know you’re out in Los Angeles, but I wanted to talk to you about a job.”

Mindy was silent for a moment. She froze in her step. “Excuse me?”

“Well, one of my partners is leaving. And before I put an ad in the paper to hire some stranger, I thought I’d call some of the people I knew I worked well with to see if they wanted the job.”

“And you want to offer me a job in New York?” Mindy asked, completely stunned.

“Well, I’d like you to interview for it. I know you have the credentials for it. But I’ve reached out to a pool of people and I have three candidates if you agree.”

“So if I did work at your practice, what would this mean?”

“Well I’m looking for partners. I have one other doctor in the office. Given our caseload, I am still considering hiring two people. But before I do that, I need a replacement. Should I count you in?”

Mindy looked down at the ring on her finger. This sounded like the job of a lifetime. A partner at a big New York practice. But would Cliff be willing to move across the country for her? She turned around and looked back at her office. Sure, she was happy there, but she could be happier somewhere else. And she’d loved Dr. Shulman when he’d been a mentor to her in med school. She had the suspicion this new job would be better for her. But she couldn’t just think for herself anymore.

“Dr. Shulman, I can’t lie, this sounds great. And I’m incredibly interested. But can I have a few days to let you know? I have some people who may influence this decision.”

“Sure, Mindy, take all the time you need. But if I were you, if I really wanted it, I wouldn’t let someone stop me.” He paused to let it sink in. “I’ll be in touch with you soon.”

Mindy hung up and wondered why this call couldn’t have come before Cliff had proposed. If she’d gotten this call when she was in Ohio, she probably would have said yes on the spot. Hell, if it came before she was engaged, she still probably would have said yes.

As she walked in the door of her apartment, she was surprised to see Cliff there decorating for the party. She distinctly recalled them agreeing it would be at his apartment.

“Hey. What’s going on?” Mindy asked, trying to remain calm.

“Hey, Babe! There was a problem with my apartment so I emailed everyone and told them to come to yours instead,” Cliff explained nonchalantly.

“Without asking me?”

Cliff looked at Mindy curiously. “It is _our_ party after all. I figured you’d have no problem with it.”

Mindy just nodded her head and walked toward her bedroom. As she walked in her closet, she noticed her suitcase sitting there. She opened it up and everything was there. She hadn’t expected it so soon. She walked back out to the living room. “So my suitcase came?”

“Oh, yeah. I put it in your closet. I wanted it out of the way.”

“Did, uh, anything come with it?” Mindy asked hopefully. What she was hoping for, she didn’t even know. Some sign that it came from Danny.

“Nope.”

Mindy took a deep breath and walked back to her room. It was wrong of her to want something to remind her even more of Danny. What she needed was to remember that she was engaged to someone else.

She wanted to walk in and ask Cliff what he thought of the job offer. She was afraid that he would tell her to turn it down. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted it. She knew it would be hard to convince Cliff to move across the country, but if he loved her, he’d do it. Wasn’t that how it worked? She heard the doorbell ring and heard people start to fill in. Damn, it was later than she’d thought. She quickly changed her clothes and went out to play happy hostess.

It was hours into the party and she was drained. She’d already worked a full day and then had to entertain to boot. As much fun as she usually had with her friends, Mindy just wasn’t feeling it. She was stooped down getting a bottle of wine from the back of her wine cabinet when she heard people approach.

“So Cliff, what made you decide to break down and propose? You were so against it.” Mindy crouched further into the cabinet to avoid being seen. She planned on listening to every part of this conversation.

“Well I really was. But then the apartment board called me and asked if we were married. Apparently they really liked us but they had a few other couples interested that were married and they thought a more traditional couple would fit in better with the clientele. So I told the lady that we were about to be engaged. I said that I was waiting for Mindy to arrive in New York so I could propose. And she bought it. It seemed like a good enough reason.”

Mindy felt her heart sink. Of course he had some “practical” reason instead of an emotional one. She felt like a fool. If she’d gotten there before that call and proposed to him, he’d probably have said no. He still didn’t approve of marriage; he just wanted them to get their apartment. She could feel tears stinging her eyes. She wanted them to move so she could stand up and get the hell out of there. It was her apartment though. Where was she going to go? She heard someone call Cliff’s name and he went over to talk to them. She quickly stood up, grabbed her phone and her keys, and ran outside.

As she stood outside, even at night, the California heat was burning her. And it wasn’t even that hot. She just had to get away. How could she have not seen it? When the first tear ran down her cheek, she steeled herself. She was Mindy Lahiri. She was not a woman without options. She didn’t wait around for a man to dictate her life. She created her own destiny. She pulled out her phone to make a call. She heard it ring a few times before he answered.

“Dr. Shulman? It’s Mindy. I’ll take it.”


	11. Hello, Is It Me You're Looking For?

There were about fifteen times on her drive where she almost turned around. Mindy was all about saying she would make grand gestures, but when it actually came down to doing them, her luck wasn’t the best. She didn’t want that to be the case this time. She was creating her own destiny, but what if that destiny bit her in the ass?

She pulled into the parking lot and turned off the engine. She didn’t have the courage to go in yet. She sat in her car until she felt too creepy to sit there any longer. Shaking off her nerves, or at least attempting to, she got out of the car and walked towards the door. She opened it with confidence, memories flooding her as she did so.

She walked in, the scent of lasagna and alcohol filling her nose. She looked around for a sign of anyone, but no one was there.

She was starting to lose her nerve, ignoring the rehearsed speech she had in her head. She turned around and was about to head out the door when someone came into the room.

“Hi, can I help you?”

Mindy turned around to see a small older lady standing not far from her. Shoving down the urge to run away, Mindy stepped forward to greet the woman. “Hi. I’m Mindy. I’m, um, here to see Danny.”

The woman narrowed her eyes at Mindy for a second before responding. “I’m sorry. Danny isn’t working today. Something came up.”

Mindy felt her stomach clench. “Something came up? Oh God. Is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” the woman answered, not giving her much to work with.

Mindy stood there silently for a bit. He wasn’t even there. She was an idiot to think that she could just show up and everything would work out. When did that ever happen? She thought about asking for a room when she realized she didn’t think she could stay here. Too many memories all began here.

“Okay, well if he’s not here, then do you know any other inns in town that I could stay at? It’s not that there’s anything wrong with yours. It’s just too…much right now,” Mindy said, probably sounding like a lunatic.

The woman stepped closer to Mindy and looked at her skeptically. “How did you say you knew Danny?”

“Umm, I don’t think I did…” Mindy replied.

The woman opened her mouth to reply when someone else spoke instead.

“Hey Ma, I need that form that you –” Danny walked in, stopping when he saw Mindy. She felt jittery at the sight of him. It had been almost a month since she’d seen him.

“Mindy,” He said, visibly shocked to see her.

“Hi,” Mindy replied quietly.

Danny didn’t move any closer to her. “What brings you by? Are you here…alone?”

“Yeah. Actually I am.”

“No she’s not,” Danny’s mother interrupted. Danny looked panicked for a moment. “I’m here too and I’d love to know what’s going on.”

Mindy smiled at her curiosity. She wondered if that meant Danny had never talked about the time they spent together. She really hoped she hadn’t gone all the way there for no reason. She looked back at Danny as he glared at his mother.

“Ma, do you think you could give me a minute?”

“Just tell me what’s going on.”

“Listen, I think we’re out of food in the kitchen and if we’re gonna have enough for tonight, one of us should go now. Think you could do that for me? Since I’m actually off work…”

His mother stared him down for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Mindy would have caved under that stare. Danny held his ground though. It was obvious his mother could see right through what he was saying, but eventually she caved and agreed to go run the errand. Once she left, Danny and Mindy were alone. Mindy knew she needed to speak. She’d thought of everything she wanted, no, needed to say. She just needed to actually say it.

“So, uh, how’ve you been?” Danny asked, beating her to the punch. She could roll with it though.

“Umm, good, I guess. I got engaged and we got the apartment we wanted. I got offered a new job. Basically I got everything that I ever wanted.”

“Congratulations? What, did you come here to brag?” Danny asked, looking a bit hurt.

“No. I came here because I had everything that I always thought I needed to be happy, to be complete, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t happy. It took me all of a week to realize that the relationship I was in was a joke. It took some well-timed eavesdropping for me to realize that the only reason I was engaged was part of a ploy. And it took all of two minutes after that for me to know that’s not what I want for my life.”

A hopeful look crossed Danny’s face before he tamped it down to look skeptical. “And?”

“And so I did what I said I was going to do originally. I created my own destiny. I left him. And I wanted to find what made me actually happy.” She stepped slightly closer to him. “You were right. My life didn’t have enough substance to it. I had everything I thought would make me happy but I realized that I didn’t have a single thing I couldn’t live without. Not even him.” She paused to let that sink in.

“So you left your boyfriend? Congratulations,” Danny replied, a blank expression gracing his face. Mindy was confused as to why he was acting the way he was. “I guess I just don’t understand why all that brought you here,” he added.

Mindy fought the urge for her jaw to drop. “Seriously? You have no clue?” Danny shrugged. Mindy stepped closer.

“I’m here because I thought there was something here. I’m here because for the last month all I’ve wanted to do was talk to you. Ask you for your opinions, see how you’d respond. When I got this new job offer, I wanted to call you before I wanted to tell my fiancé. I’m here because in the three days we spent together, I felt more protected, more appreciated, and more myself than I did in the last year I was with Cliff. I’m here because I felt better with you walking through the middle of nowhere Ohio than I did at my own engagement party. I’m here because ever since I kissed you in that barn all I’ve wanted to do is kiss you again. I’m here because watching you be happy just being back in Staten made me happy. And that has to mean something. If you want to deny it, fine. But you’ll never fully convince me that this is one sided.”

Danny stared at her. He swallowed quickly. “Mindy, it was only three days.”

She couldn’t believe it. “Yeah, it was only three days. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t see the defeated look on your face when Cliff found me in the lobby of that hotel. I saw your face, Danny, and it spoke volumes. It said a hell of a lot more than you’re saying right now.”

Danny stayed silent. He didn’t have anything to negate her claim.

She took a step back. “Look, I don’t know if you realize the guts it took for me to come here. And if I leave, I’m not gonna have the guts to come back. I’m not going to want to come back.”

Danny took a deep breath and looked down. She was about to take it as her sign when he picked his head up and looked at her. His expression was completely changed. It was raw and helpless. It looked like everything he’d been trying to keep in was suddenly escaping.

“Mindy. Don’t leave.” He sounded desperate. He stepped closer to her, still leaving space. “Look, I kept telling myself that thinking there could be something between us was ridiculous. For one, I was escorting you to another man. And two, it was three days. Not even three full days. And I was freaked out because in that time you figured me out well enough to call me on being scared. And you were right. The truth is that the more time we spent together, the less I wanted to get to New York. And it wasn’t because I was scared of going back there. It was because I didn’t want to just give you to someone else. Which was stupid because you were never mine in the first place.”

Mindy stayed where she was but flashed him a small smile to encourage him to continue. He stepped closer. “You’re right. You did see a defeated look on my face at the hotel because that’s how I felt. I kept bemoaning how unfair it was that you weren’t single. You were the best thing that had happened to me in years and I didn’t even have a chance.” Danny exhaled heavily, like he got a weight off his chest and could finally breathe again.

He closed the distance between them and raised his hands to cup her face. “Don’t leave. Stay here with me. Please. Because I think we could be something great together.”

Mindy smiled radiantly at him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning up on her toes to meet him for a kiss. He quickly closed the gap and kissed her. His lips moved gently against hers. She pulled herself closer to him and deepened the kiss.

This time when it turned more passionate, she didn’t break away. She ran her hands through his hair and opened her mouth for him. Danny ran his hands all over her body. His hands landed firmly on her ass, pulling her even closer to him. He hiked her legs up around his hips and started walking backwards. She released his mouth and started kissing a trail down his neck. When he backed into a chair, he sat down with her astride him. He reclaimed her mouth again, kissing her deeply.

When the need for oxygen became more apparent, they finally broke apart, foreheads resting together. Mindy chuckled. “So you want me to stay?”

Danny looked her in the eye. “Yeah.” He was brushing a strand of hair out of her face when his news dawned on him. “Well, actually it wouldn’t be here.” She pulled back a bit further to look at him. “It would actually be in…New York. I, uh, got offered my old job back and as of two hours ago, I took it.”

Mindy gaped at him. “Wait, you took it? How come they didn’t tell me?”

“What?”

“What?” Mindy asked, feigning ignorance.

“Mindy?” Danny asked, wondering what the hell was going on.

Mindy leaned in to kiss him again but he was quicker than she expected. He gently pushed her back so he could interrogate her while she still sat on his lap. All it took was one inquisitive look from him to break her.

“Okay, I realize this is going to sound incredibly presumptuous and borderline creepy.”

“Okay…” Danny replied, really drawing out the word.

“So the new job I was offered was in New York. My old mentor reached out to me and I took the job. He mentioned something about wanting to bring on another partner and I may have said I knew someone for the job. I didn’t actually know if you would want the job but I thought it was worth a shot. Turns out, my old mentor is your old boss and he was more than happy to reach out to you and rehire you.”

Danny stared at Mindy wordlessly. He looked flummoxed. “Wait, so you got me my job back?”

“Yeah,” Mindy replied weakly, still unsure of how he would respond.

Danny reached up and ran both his hands through her hair, bringing her face close to his. She looked at him expectantly. He scanned her face before making eye contact again. “Thank you,” he finally said with a smile before pulling her down to kiss her again.

She pulled away quickly this time. “So you aren’t mad at me? Creeped out by me?”

Danny shook his head and laughed. “No. I’m not.”

Mindy smiled happily at him. “Thank God,” she sighed. She leaned down to kiss him quickly. “Hey so when you get back to New York, can we go back to that restaurant? Because it was amazing and there were like ten other things I wanted to try.”

Danny grinned at her. He kissed her neck up to her jaw and then repeated it on the other side. He kissed her cheek, working his way back to her ear. Whispering hotly in her ear, he said, “When I get to New York, we can do whatever you want.”

Mindy crushed her lips to his, kissing him deeply before quickly pulling back enough to look him in the eye. Her voice heavy with desire, she asked, “Why wait til New York?”

Danny leered at her, leaning back in to kiss her hard. As they kissed in a frenzied passion, Danny remembered thinking earlier in the day that his day couldn’t get any better. He’d had no idea that the best thing to ever happen to him would walk back into his life. As he calculated how long it would take to get her upstairs, he was also thinking of how long he needed to wait to say the things he was pretty sure he felt. They had time. Now they had plenty of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this. I really liked the way this chapter turned out, even if it's a little long! I'm planning on writing an epilogue, it's just a matter of actually getting it written!   
> Thank you for reading! I've really appreciated all the comments and kudos! I would love to hear what you thought of this one too!


	12. One Year

Everyone used to think that Mindy Lahiri’s life was perfect. But now, she finally agreed with them. It had been a year since she’d created her own destiny. She was happy to be back in New York. It was kind of shocking to her how quickly she uprooted her life to move back. She had yet to find a reason to regret her move, though.

Of course, the biggest change in her life was Danny. His transition from little town Ohio back to the Big Apple appeared to be seamless. It was like he never left the place. She loved that working with him meant she could see him even on days she was busy. She knew by the way she felt about him after three days that her feelings for Danny would always be strong. Some days he infuriated her, but most days she couldn’t stop thinking of how lucky she was to have him. The past year had been pretty amazing. Even with hectic work schedules, readjustments, and just general life mishaps, Mindy didn’t think she’d ever been happier.

As she rode the elevator up to her office, she smiled thinking about where she was a year ago. One year ago that day, she was on a plane ready to spend her life with someone who basically didn’t want the same things. One year ago she met Danny and literally her whole world changed. She wondered if he knew how grateful she was for him.

Mindy walked in to the office, still in her scrubs. She’d had a delivery the night before and was incredibly exhausted. She had a full day ahead of her too. She loved what she did, but some days it was really tough. When she walked toward reception, aside from the receptionist, Danny was the only person there. Even though she felt physically exhausted, she still perked up at the sight of him.

At the sound of her approaching, Danny looked up and immediately beamed at her. She walked right up to him and laid her head down on the desk next to him. He leaned down and kissed her head. “How’d your delivery go?” he asked as he affectionately played with her ponytail.

She glanced up at him. “It went well. But I’m dead. Like physically dead.”

Danny looked at her critically. “You still look pretty hot for a dead person.” Mindy broke into a huge smile. “There it is!” Danny cheered. “That’s all I wanted.” Mindy picked her head up and kissed him quickly before she turned to go to her office.

“Oh by the way,” Mindy exclaimed, turning back toward him. “Happy Anniversary!”

Danny looked panicked. “What? That’s not for like another month!”

Walking back, Mindy answered, “Today is the day we met. Well, a year ago.”

“Oh yeah, I knew that,” Danny replied, laughing to cover up nerves. Mindy shook her head at him skeptically before heading to her office. Danny followed her and popped his head in. “You’re still free tonight, right? We were going to go to dinner,” he reminded her.

Mindy groaned as she threw herself down in her chair. “I’m free, but I don’t know about dinner, Babe. Wouldn’t it just be more fun to go back to one of our places and do nothing?”

“I think you need a new definition of fun, but I guess if that’s what you wanna do then that’s fine,” Danny conceded. He turned out of Mindy’s office and headed back to his. As he shut the door, he leaned against it, muttering, “Well shit.”

Later in the day, Danny waited till he saw Mindy take a patient back before he went into Jeremy’s office to ask for his opinion. “Hey Jeremy, how’s your day going?”

“What do you want, Danny?”

“What? Why do I have to want something to talk to you? We’re friends.”

“Yes, we are friends. However, you came in, shut the door, and then used the “I need something” tone. What is it?”

Danny sat down quickly in front of Jeremy’s desk. He and Jeremy were actually friends. If they hadn’t been, Danny would never have actually gone to him for advice. Not long after Danny and Mindy started at the practice, Mindy made him hang out with the other people they worked with so she wouldn’t be the only person she knew. He’d tried to explain to her that he’d worked there before and knew everyone already. She wouldn’t take no for an answer though. It actually did help him realize how much he’d missed everyone. He’d never spent that much time with them to begin with, what with trying to maintain his marriage and all. Things were just massively different this time around.

 “Okay so I need your opinion.”

“Okay? On?” Jeremy asked, leaning forward in his chair. He was a bit too much of a gossip in Danny’s opinion.

“So I had these plans tonight with Mindy but now she doesn’t really want to go out. The thing is, I was going to propose tonight but now my plans are screwed. So what do I do? I could –”

“Hold up! You were going to propose to Mindy tonight?”

“Yeah.”

Jeremy gaped at him. “Good God, Man, you two have only been together for like what a few months?”

“A year…” Danny corrected.

“That’s nothing. Why are you in such a hurry?”

Danny looked down. “I don’t know. I guess because when you know, you know. Why wait if you know?” He concluded with a shrug.

Jeremy nodded his head slowly. “Okay, continue with your problem.”

“So do I try to convince her to go out to dinner with me as planned or do I just go with what she wants to do?”

“Why is it such a big deal that you go out to get engaged? Or that you propose tonight?” Jeremy interrogated.

“Mindy once told me how she wanted to be proposed to. I was doing my best to follow those guidelines. But staying in doesn’t really do that.”

“She already told you how she wants to be proposed to? My goodness she’s presumptuous isn’t she?”

“It was before we got together. Look, what do I do? I want to do it tonight. That part is non-negotiable.”

Jeremy sat there for a bit thinking over things. “Well, wouldn’t you say just about any place is a good place to get engaged? I mean maybe not the toilets or something like that, but there’s nothing wrong with your apartment, right?”

Danny stared at Jeremy. Finally he shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know what to do. I guess I’ll figure it out by tonight.”

“Sorry, Mate,” Jeremy said as Danny turned for the door. “Hey Danny?” Danny turned around to look at him. “Mindy is a lucky girl.”

Danny laughed and walked back to his office, hoping he’d find some way to give Mindy the perfect proposal.

The day flew by and before he knew it, Mindy was standing in his doorway, ready to leave.

“So your place or mine, Babe?”

Danny popped his head up, cursing himself for not having solved his problem yet. She was looking at him expectantly. “Uh, my place okay?”

“Why do you hate my apartment?” Mindy asked, chuckling.

“I don’t. Your apartment hates me.”

“My neighbor yelled at you one time. And to be fair, Danny you _did_ steal his newspaper.”

“How was I supposed to know you didn’t get a paper? I just assumed it was yours!” Danny exclaimed.

“Mhmm. Okay,” Mindy replied, still laughing. “So are you ready to go or not?”

Danny took a deep breath and decided to go with the flow. His plans had changed for the better before. Maybe this would just be another example. Danny nodded and stood up. He grabbed his bag and met Mindy at the door with a kiss.

Mindy was standing in his kitchen, stirring the pot of sauce on the stove. “Danny, how do I know if I’m doing this right?”

“It’s stirring! How do you do it wrong?” Danny yelled from his bedroom.

“Um, I’m sure I could find a way, Babe. You know this about me!” Mindy yelled back. As she saw bubbles in the sauce she started to freak out. Danny was off doing something in the other room and she had been left in charge of the sauce. Fearing she was screwing everything up, she shut off the stove until Danny got back. “Hey, I think I messed something up. I shut it off. Cooking is your job, I just mess it up!” Mindy yelled. She turned around and jumped as she screamed. She hadn’t heard Danny creep up on her.

“Sorry,” Danny laughed as he grabbed her, trying to calm her down.

“I did _not_ hear you. You are being so sneaky tonight,” she said with a shake of her head. Danny just nodded.

“You’re right. I am,” he admitted. He let go of Mindy and took a few steps back. “Listen, I know people usually wait till the end of the meal or the end of the night to do these things, but I can’t wait.”

Mindy panicked. “Oh my God. Are you breaking up with me?!”

Danny recoiled. “What? No.” He stepped closer and cupped her face in his hands. “No,” he assured her before kissing her. He pulled back and went down on one knee. She gasped.

“Mindy Lahiri –”

“Yes!” Mindy shouted.

Danny just stared at her. “Seriously? You won’t even let me finish?”

Mindy laughed. “I’m sorry. I’m just excited. Please, continue.”

Danny smiled and shook his head. “Mindy, you are the most amazing woman. I will swear till the day I die that you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I love you beyond belief. A year ago today you walked into my life and I never want you to walk out. Will you marry –”

Danny couldn’t finish before Mindy tackled him. He was flat on the kitchen floor and she was on top of him peppering kisses across his face. She picked her head up to look him in the eye. “Yes. I love you so much. Yes!” She cried. Danny reached up and brought her head down to his so he could kiss her properly.

Finally, they stood up and he dug the ring out of his pocket and slipped it on her finger. She was beaming at the sight. She looked back up at him and pulled him in for another kiss. Mindy was the first to break away. She leaned in and clung to Danny.

It didn’t matter that all day she’d been exhausted. It didn’t matter that her life could be a bit crazy at times. As Mindy stood there being held by the man that she loved, she realized that yes indeed, her life was pretty much perfect. A year ago she’d set out to create her own destiny and ended up finding so much more than she could have ever imagined. So much more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you thank you thank you for reading!! I really appreciate all the support y'all have given me! It means a lot!  
> I hope you've enjoyed this! :)

**Author's Note:**

> I love playing with alternate realities. I hope you'll enjoy this! As always, I'd love to hear what you think!
> 
> You can find me here: http://allmylovesatonce.tumblr.com/


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